Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Very good points! :thumbsup:
"PANIC" a LOST production
- Thread starter kingstubby
- Start date
Very good points! :thumbsup:
Tim Joy
Veteran
Simple and effective, done well.
The only thing I didn't understand was what the guy outside was banging on. It looked liked a newspaper vending machine? I didnt get that. I also didn't get why there would be a screen outside if you are trying to protect yourself inside, except that it was cool to have a written conversation between the two.
The style and the look was cool. Nice job.
The only thing I didn't understand was what the guy outside was banging on. It looked liked a newspaper vending machine? I didnt get that. I also didn't get why there would be a screen outside if you are trying to protect yourself inside, except that it was cool to have a written conversation between the two.
The style and the look was cool. Nice job.
Bryce A
Well-known member
Alrighty,
1. Newspaper stand!
Obviously, I'm super buff, since the prop element in question was a real intercom terminal (bolted to the ground, had wires and such) and I was just knocking it around... er... it was SUPPOSE to be an intercom terminal anyway. Doesn't sound like you bought it. I'll have to blame that on our shotty set designer. i think we picked him up on the side of the road and payed him with cigarettes.
If you didn't buy it, you didn't buy it. And that wasn't a real underground bunker either!
2. Why is there a screen outside?
The idea is that we see more of the outside world in the security monitor screens (as the bunker character tries to track the Outsider). This should give away that the bunker he's in is part of a bigger complex. So, it's not necessarily that the bunker was meant to be an isolated hidden away spot, but that it's being used for that purpose.
i.e. Imagine if you locked yourself up in a house with an audio intercom when the bombs fell. You're trying to hide, but someone is going to notice that the gates are locked and there's a speaker outside.
Of course, maybe all that is to justify a cool plot device...
Believe what you want! Thanks for questioning!
Danielleus
Well-known member
Also, to tack onto what Bryce has mentioned, there is a degree of "how well do you know this person." My mom's always said you can't trust someone that you haven't sat down to have dinner with. With the audio portion of the intercom down, it makes it EVEN more of a challenge for our bunker survivor to suss out whether the stranger is trustworthy. I mean first impressions are everything, right? So you want to see them but you also want to hear them, sort of the one-two punch of initial reactions. Without the audio communication there's that added ambiguity of whether or not the person SOUNDS like they're lying or trustworthy. Hopefully, that's meant to amp up the intensity or level of Panic.
Hope that helps some what. But I agree with Bryce that if it didn't work it didn't work. Not your fault. If it needs explanation then it needs to be done better.
Thanks for watching and glad you got into the rest of it. That means alot to us.
Bryce A
Well-known member
Yes! Maybe it was a twist not having a twist? The ending is something we gave a good deal of pondering too in pre-production. Kudos to mr. writer/director Justin for stucking to his guns and keeping the ending straight. Really this is how the film should end. It's a story about how messed world has become. The good hearts get eaten first! There are lots of possible tricks, but in the word of Justin, "it is really about a simple robbery."
Cool. Glad you felt that way. We had fun filling the security monitors and newscast full of info, but left it at that. Over a few films, we've seemed to follow the principle of not giving the audience anymore than the characters get. It should be the characters story that keeps the viewer a' viewin'. No exposition for the sake of the audience! Hurrah!
Well that certainly is encouraging!
We've really been trying to up our game every fest. Only problem (other than whether or not we are) is so is EVERYONE ELSE. ...er well that's not a problem. It's a good thing! We all push each other to get better. That's the best reward. :-Mark-12(DBG) Reciprocal communal growth! heh....
Thanks again!
Danielleus
Well-known member
Hey Man,
I like your answer and I, for one, probably would have pushed for that kind of an ending. But I think Bryce has a point and both have great merit. But yeah, having a different alternative would have been a neat way to go. But like the man said, Justin wrote/directed this and this simple, human story is the one he wanted to tell.
Hey but I am glad that you, and every one's that commented, seems to be digging the film. Honestly, we were all in a Panic about not getting tons of feedback. Were people not watching ours? Did they watch and not want to comment? DOES IT SUCK????
So yeah, thanks to all for watching and letting us know what you think. The bad is probably even better than the good because it lets us know what didn't work for you or how we misinterpreted the result or how effective it could be. Thanks all for watching.
You're exactly right. This is the story you wanted to tell, and you told it very well. "The good hearts get eaten first!" How sad but true.
Getting comments is great, but in the end we decide what is the best way to tell a story. For some filmmakers commercial consideration overrides all else. Hopefully we can all make the kind of movies we want, and still find an audience.
Danielleus
Well-known member
Nicely put. There is that fine line in wanting to get something across and it not coming across. Not the case here, but there is always that fear, that someone will want something and you think "weird, that's what I was trying to do. Shoot, didn't work."
My personal opinion on the matter is that you should always have the audience in mind for narrative film. Experimental and avant garde film, for my money, is preoccupied with a completely different set of concerns. But if the idea is to tell a story then audience should be taken into consideration. But I agree, there are people who ONLY have the audience in mind which seems weird because, well, how are you going to direct/produce a piece and not have a personal opinion/perspective on it.
majikfraug
Well-known member
Very nice work. I'd like to give better comments, but I need to watch this one again and my hard-drive is not with me at the moment. Left a great first impression though -otherwise it wouldn't warrant another viewing, I suppose
Dick Campbell
Veteran
in the end, I didn't really get it. But, the post-apocalyptic effect was very well done - sold it for me.
IMNUMBERZERO
Member
I wish kingstubby/Justin would post some of his thoughts!
Horncastle
Well-known member
Another really good film from you guys!! Great the way you managed to keep up that increasing tension for the full length of the film with no spoken dialog and just one scene - really good score/sound effects. :thumbup:
Jason
Jason
Mike Insane
Well-known member
Well done. It had me on the edge of my seat. It felt like the beginning of something larger, a story about the guy that is outside... however, there was no real gotcha. maybe that was the point. I was hoping for a little something more at the end but I honestly can't think of what that may be. Maybe that is why I said it feels like the beginning of something larger.
Technically, the only problem I had with it was that the beginning scenes where he is first hearing the buzzer are way too dark.
You did a great job of selling the post apocalyptic world. I'm a sucker for films like this. Good job!
Technically, the only problem I had with it was that the beginning scenes where he is first hearing the buzzer are way too dark.
You did a great job of selling the post apocalyptic world. I'm a sucker for films like this. Good job!
Bryce A
Well-known member
Very nice work. I'd like to give better comments, but I need to watch this one again and my hard-drive is not with me at the moment. Left a great first impression though -otherwise it wouldn't warrant another viewing, I suppose
Cool. Would love to hear some more feedback if you've got the time. Haven't checked out Borders yet (18 films left to watch and comment on!!), Survival was great though. And just who is Jeremiah Rounds? Is he a filmmaker or an actor? Or both?
Thanks, Dirk and hoz. The ending seems to be the biggest point of contention. You get and like it or expected something more. Either way, we're glad people are digging the Post-Apocalyptic world. It's one of those things that's fun to imagine and er.... probably not quite as fun to experience.
Agreed! That's just ol' Stubby for ya.
Thanks, Leteeci (aka master of eastern euro nightmare quasi erotica)! Just teasin', cause you know I like your film!
Yes. I was pretty amazed by what Justin was able to do with zero dialogue (though, technically there is the newscaster at the beginning). If you haven't seen his Lovefest flick, Hollow, that's another example of how his silent work is friggin unparalleled.
Oh, how every short film could be the beginning of something larger.... The bane of not wanting to let go! We actually have an in-joke (or is it a joke? :huh
that the character of the outsider is the doctor from Hollow.... heh.... But it's definitely the same world though. ...just sometime after. Think of it like a companion piece. I smell trilogy!
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Darkline
Veteran
just wanted to chime back in and say I love the bts shots. Its a real shame that you had to show all of this on a CCTV monitor because it all looked so great.
That said, if you had shown it, it wouldnt have been such a tense piece. I bet you were gagging to just slot a few shots of this outside world into the film, well done for resisting ;-)
That said, if you had shown it, it wouldnt have been such a tense piece. I bet you were gagging to just slot a few shots of this outside world into the film, well done for resisting ;-)
jasonthewho
Veteran
Really well done film. The visuals were all excellent as was the central conceit. I see there has been some discussion of the ending, and I feel compelled to jump in. When I watched the film and the end came I just felt like "Okay, so exactly what he thought was going to happen happened." But I see what you're going with here, your fears ARE real, you SHOULD distrust people, etc. I wonder though if you could have tricked us a little, by having the stranger come up, and be nice for a second. Then when our hero turns his back... WHABAMM!
That way the ending could feel like a surprise, and yet still support the message of the film.
Anyway, just me rambling on. Excellent work with the film.
That way the ending could feel like a surprise, and yet still support the message of the film.
Anyway, just me rambling on. Excellent work with the film.
Rodney V. Smith
DVXFest Promo Guru
Dude, glad you guys are back and with another raw and stunning story. Your imagery alone always makes watching your films so damn cool. You definitely captured the rawness and reality of the situation and I liked how well you were able to pull off a visual story without having to resort to dialog. Pure visual story-telling. Lighting fit the mood and characters were perfect, so awesome work all around.
Guess that will teach him to open the door for a stranger.
Awesome show and definitely one of the diamonds I had mentioned.
Guess that will teach him to open the door for a stranger.
Awesome show and definitely one of the diamonds I had mentioned.